By Keysha Drexel
Journal Editor
What started out as a way for Mobile natives to bring a bit of Mardi Gras to Halloween in Mountain Brook has grown into an annual event that attracts thousands, reroutes traffic and even has the dismissal bell ringing early at one elementary school.
And for Trent Wright, who started the Mystics of Mountain Brook Parade with his sister nine years ago, that’s the ultimate sign of success.
“Well, when the school lets the kids out early, I kind of feel like I’ve made it,“ Wright said.
Last year, the parade Trent started with his
sister, Casey Horn, had students at Crestline Elementary going home early to avoid traffic related to the event.
Casey said for her and her brother, founding the parade was a nod to the parades they attended growing up in the birthplace of the nation’s oldest Mardi Gras parade.
“We’re so Mobile, so there’s Mardi Gras is in our blood,” Casey said. “And we’re just kids at heart, so a parade sounded like a fun idea.”
For Trent and Casey, Halloween has always been special.
“October 31st is our mother’s birthday, so we’ve always made a big deal out of Halloween in our family,” Casey said.
The parade features floats made by Mountain Brook residents in all shapes, sizes and Halloween-related themes.
“People put a lot of effort into making these floats,“ Trent said. “ It’s not a big parade route, but they really get into it.”
The route started out in Trent’s neighborhood but in its second year had already attracted such a large following that Trent and Casey had to go to the city and get a parade permit.
“It started small but it grew quickly,“ Trent said. “So we decided to go all-in.”
Going all-in meant a growing partnership with city merchants and the Mountain Brook Chamber of Commerce.
“The chamber got on board with us last year, and the merchants give away the prizes in the float competition,“ Trent said.
During the planning process for this year’s parade, Trent said he learned Mystics of Mountain Brook had inspired local businesses to get into the Halloween spirit.
“Mafioso’s called, and they’re going to do a big Halloween party geared more to adults, with a costume competition with prizes right after the parade,“ Trent said.
He said La Paz and several other merchants are participating in the after-parade activities.
“There is barely standing room only in the Village when we do the parade,” Trent said.
Trent said the parade owes its growth to the support of the community.
“What we do is pretty expensive to put on, and so we are lucky to have local businesses sponsor it and get their names on the (parade) T-shirts,” he said.
A $50 donation gets a business a banner carried in the parade by Mountain Brook cheerleaders.
But the parade is not designed to be a money-making event, Trent said.
In fact, he said, just the opposite is true.
“For the last few years, we’ve had money left over from the parade that allows us to write a check to the city to help the community in some way,” Trent said.
One year, the Mystics of Mountain Brook helped the city’s firefighters be a little more comfortable during their downtime.
“We bought the firefighters a recliner and a TV, and they were so thankful and we felt lucky to be able to do that for them,” Trent said.
Last year, the Mystics made a $1,100 donation to the city’s beautification programs.
“We’re so glad to have the support that we do for the parade and at the same time feel like maybe we’re doing something that people will enjoy as much as we enjoy doing it,” Casey said.
Last year, Trent said, almost 5,000 people attended the Mystics of Mountain Brook parade.
“When we started this, we had no idea that our little neighborhood parade would turn into something that draws people from all over the metro area,“ he said.
Casey said she thinks the parade is something unique for families to do during the Halloween season in the Over the Mountain area.
“There’s nothing really like it in this area, and it’s good to see people come out and enjoy it from year to year,“ Casey said.
The number of people walking or riding in the parade has also grown over the years, Trent said.
“Last year we had everyone from the Birmingham Belles to the Tragic City Rollers to our own Mountain Brook cheerleaders in the parade,” he said. “This year, the mayor’s going to drive his antique fire truck in the parade.”
Like any Mardi Gras-inspired event, the Mystics of Mountain Brook parade gives those in the crowd a chance to take home some beads.
“We throw pretty much everything but candy–Moon Pies, balloons, cups and of course, lots of Mardi Gras beads,“ Trent said.
But it isn’t the beads that draw the crowds to the parade each year, Trent said.
“It’s the floats,“ he said. “They get better and better every year.“
Trent said the parade has separate categories for large and small floats, with prizes given in each category.
“Every float has its own theme,” Trent said. “They really get into planning for and making the floats for the parade each year.”
The Welsh family says they are a good example of folks who really get into planning and creating a float for the parade.
“Oh, it’s something we think about and plan for all year,” said Lori Welsh. “This goes far beyond the Halloween season.”
Lori and her husband Joe are members of a team that has created the winning large float in the parade for the last two years.
And the Welsh family, along with neighbors Stephanie and Brannon Bruno and Micah Russell, are looking for a three-peat.
“We’re really excited about our float this year, and we’re hoping we’ll take home first place again,” Lori said.
The neighbors say working on the float together brings a sense of community and is just fun to boot.
“We work together as a team, and it makes us feel like a team,“ Lori said. “It’s fun to get everyone involved and get our creative juices flowing to see what we can come up with every year.“
The first year the group of neighbors entered a float in the parade, it had a haunted castle theme with a huge ghost that looked like it was floating over the truck hauling it.
“After seeing our idea come to life that first year, we were hooked, so we went even bigger in our second year,” Lori said.
For their second entry in the parade’s float competition, Lori and her neighbors transformed papier-mâché, a 25-foot utility trailer and an animatronics dragon into a living, moving, fire-breathing dragon straight out of the Shrek movies.
Micah sculpted a huge dragon out of papier-mâché and the team figured out how to make its wings move. The kids even got in on the act, Lori said.
“On the Shrek float, it was my son who came up with the idea of using a fog machine to make it look like smoke was coming out of the dragon’s mouth,” she said.
Lori said she thinks the Shrek float won first place that year because it was truly a team effort where everyone got to contribute a creative idea.
“The Brunos dressed up as Fiona and Shrek, and the kids dressed up as all the storybook characters featured in the movies,” Lori said.
Last year, the neighbors decided to stick with their success in animatronics and crafted a menacingly large flying bat with dozens of cardboard bats fluttering around it.
“We had a bat cave and we were all dressed like bats and vampires,” Lori said. “It was a very intricate design involving fishing wire and a lot of planning.”
This year‘s float theme was inspired by the neighbors’ trip to New Orleans in February.
“We went to Mardi Gras together,” Lori said. “We caught some beads we can recycle in our parade and also got the idea to do something with a Chinese dragon theme.”
Lori said she wouldn’t reveal the details of the plans for this year’s float, but she did give a few hints.
“We were very inspired by the Chinese dragon idea, but we’ve done animatronics for the last few years, so people might expect that again,” Lori said. “But they’ll just have to come out and see if that’s the direction we take this year.”
In the meantime, the neighbors are working on putting the finishing touches on their entry for the 2012 parade and looking forward to competing in years to come.
“I have this whole list of ideas on my iPad, and I keep it beside my bed at night so I can get them all down as I think of them,” Lori said. “I probably have enough ideas for the next five or six years.”
Lori said working with her neighbors to plan and coordinate the float each year is something she looks forward to doing.
“There’s much sitting around and talking,” she said. “The kids are running around playing together and having a good time, and the adults are planning on what we’re doing with the float and how we’re going to do it.”
Lori said she thinks the parade has brought other groups of neighbors together.
“It’s fun to have this in Mountain Brook, and I think it’s something that everyone enjoys, whether they are in the parade or watching the parade,” she said.
This year’s event kicks off at 4 p.m. from the Emmet O’Neal Library.
